Driving innovation forward with exoskeleton TWIICE at Cybathlon

06 October 2016

Fischer Connectors’ ultralight connectors feature in LSRO’s exoskeleton to race at first Cybathlon.

In partnership with the “Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques” (LSRO) of the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne), Fischer Connectors has provided its connectivity solutions to a new ultralight exoskeleton designed as a wearable, robotic support to help people with spinal cord injury walk again.

Named TWIICE, the exoskeleton will compete in the world premiere CYBATHLON, a championship for athletes with disabilities to be held in Zurich on 8 October 2016.

At this event, individuals with physical disabilities will compete using the latest assistive technologies. During the powered exoskeleton race, pilots with complete paraplegia will tackle an obstacle course involving typical everyday tasks such as climbing stairs or sitting down on a chair. The challenge for the pilots will be to guide the exoskeleton into correctly performing the movements as quickly as possible.

LSRO’s exoskeleton features our compact Fischer Core Series AluLite push-pull connectors. Their light weight, robustness, ergonomic design and ease of use fulfill the project’s requirements in terms of safety, compactness, high density and reliability.

“TWIICE, thelightest exoskeleton of its type in the world, weighs less than 15kg,” explains Dr Mohamed Bouri, LSRO’s Rehabilitation and Assistive Robotics Group Leader. “Its ergonomy and controller’ compactness require high-density connectors combining power and sensor signals. The safety needs of this medical application motivated our team to choose the ultralight connectors from Fischer Connectors.”

The TWIICE exoskeleton will be showcased in action on Fischer Connectors’ booth (219, Hall B2) in Electronica in Munich (8-11 November 2016).

Photo: The handbike athlete Silke Pan, using the exoskeleton TWIICE with LSRO's PolyWalk EPFL team, is ready for the Cybathlon.